Key up event and get the typed value
<html> <head> <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.3.2.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function(){ $("input").keyup(function () { var value = $(this).val(); $("div").text(value); }).keyup(); }); </script> </head> <body> <body> <input type="text" value="some text"/> <div></div> </body> </html>